How to Use Adobe Media Encoder: A Beginner's Guide

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Pau Monfort
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If you're using Adobe Creative Suite, Adobe Media Encoder should be your go-to application for all your media processing requirements.


Adobe Media Encoder is integrated with Premiere Pro, After Effects, and other applications, creating a seamless media processing workflow for your audio and video projects.

This guide will walk you through the basics of using Media Encoder, from creating and applying a preset to adding a source to the render queue.



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Why use Adobe Media Encoder?

The main function of Adobe Media Encoder is to compress audio and video files. After all, when rendering the final project, the file size is usually quite large.


To make your project work smoothly on devices on mobile networks or Wi-Fi, as well as on devices without fast processors or tons of RAM, your project needs to be compressed. Most of what you see and hear on any platform has been compressed once, if not multiple times.

Adobe includes Media Encoder with most single video app plans, such as Premier Pro and After Effects. If you already use Adobe Creative Suite, Media Encoder makes sense as a reference software for rendering your projects.

Download or update Media Encoder

If you already have a single video app or full membership with Adobe, it's important to update Media Encoder, if you haven't already. Here's how to update it:


  1. Apri l’app desktop Creative Cloud.
  2. Review the list of all the apps to see if you need to update or install Media Encoder.
  3. Select Update o Install. Depending on the required update or installation, this process will take a few moments to complete.
  4. Once completed, Media Encoder will appear in the list All apps. Simply select apri to start.

Adobe offers a free trial of Media Encoder if you prefer to try before buying.



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Add your source to the queue

Since Media Encoder is integrated with the entire Adobe Creative Suite, there are several ways to add items to the Adobe Media Encoder queue. Below you will find the simplest methods to get started with Media Encoder.

Adding files to Media Encoder

The use of the Add source it is a quick way to import files to be encoded if they have already been completed and saved in the system. Optionally, you can choose to add any After Effects compositions or Premiere Pro sequences you've already created and saved.


  1. apri Adobe Media Encoder.
  2. Select Fillet.
  3. Select Add sourceAdd After Effects Composition o Add Premiere Pro sequence, depending on the project you are working on.

Search for Media Encoder files

If you've already created the files you want to encode, using the file search function is the easiest way to import your files. This allows you to select multiple files at one time to import into the queue.

  1. Open media encoder.
  2. Select the icon + in the Queue panel.
  3. Choose the file you want to return.
  4. Select OK.

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Import from After Effects

You can easily add items to the Media Encoder queue directly from After Effects. Here's how to do it:


  1. Open the your After Effects project.
  2. Go up File> Export.
  3. Select Add to media encoder queue.

Import from Premiere Pro

Sending your files directly to the Media Encoder queue from Premiere Pro is as easy as a button click, allowing you to continue your work in Premiere Pro while your project is being encoded.


  1. Open your Premiere Pro project.
  2. Go up File> Export.
  3. Select Media.
  4. When the Export Settings window appears, select Tail.

Adjusting the media encoder settings

Media Encoder has built-in presets for the most common types of video. By default, Media Encoder will use the preset you used for your last project.

But if you need to make changes to your latest project, here's how you do it:

  1. In Preset in the media encoder queue, select the preset text.
  2. Within the popup window, you can set your format. H.264 is the most popular format, providing presets for YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter, and many more commonly used platforms. If you intend to post on a particular platform, it is always important to check its requirements before changing these settings.
  3. Select an option from the drop-down list default.
  4. Select Nome output to set where you want to store your files once rendered.
  5. Navigate to the location where you want to store your file. You can also select an alternate file name at this point.
  6. Select Save when you have finished.

There are many other custom setting options available in this window. However, if you've chosen the default for the platform you want to post to, you shouldn't make any further changes.


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How to stop coding

Sometimes you may need to interrupt the coding process, perhaps you have thought about a change you want to make to your project or you forgot to adjust the settings. Stopping the encoding process is quick and easy.


If you need to stop the encoding process, you can do one of the following:

  • To stop encoding the current item, choose File> Stop Current Item. Media Encoder will continue to encode the remaining items in the queue.
  • To stop encoding all items in the queue, choose File> Stop Queue.

Clear your queue

As time goes by and you will see how affordable Media Encoder can be, your queue could become a long list of projects rendered a lifetime ago. That is why it is important to know how to quickly and easily clean the tail.

Cleaning up projects in the Media Encoder queue is quick and easy:

  1. Open media encoder.
  2. Within the queue, select the files you want to remove. You can select individual files or a block of files by holding pressed the key Shift as you select the file at the top and bottom of the list. You can also select multiple files by holding down the key Ctrl as you select each of them.
  3. Right-click on any area of ​​the selection.
  4. Select Remove.

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Get to know the basics of Media Encoder

These are just the basics of Media Encoder, and there are still many other features worth exploring.

And if you're not already making the most of Adobe Media Encoder, it's probably time to use it. In addition to allowing you to render files in the background while you are still working on an edit, the efficiency of using render presets, instead of manually tweaking settings with each export, will have a huge impact on your workflow.

Further Reading:

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  • How to convert PDF to PowerPoint

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